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Rating

6Overall

6
Applicability

5
Innovation

7
Style

Recommendation

Investors invariably greet each new Wall Street scandal with shock and dismay. But scholar and author Richard Roberts reminds readers that fraud is nothing new in the U.S. financial industry. Tracking miscreants from Charles Ponzi to Enron, Roberts succinctly outlines scams that have separated investors from their money. His overview of Wall Street fraud is the most compelling part of this book, which is mostly a textbook-style primer that outlines the structure of Wall Street. Overall, Roberts focuses on describing Wall Street’s various stages of development, sectors and markets, perhaps with too little narrative thread or fresh analysis. getAbstract recommends this as a thorough introduction to U.S. financial industry that offers some insight into its scandals.

In this summary, you will learn

What Wall Street is;

How the U.S. securities market has evolved; and

What role fraud has played in Wall Street’s history.

About the Author

Richard Roberts is on the faculty of the School of Social Sciences at the University of Sussex. His books include The Bank of England 1694-1994 and City State.

Summary

From Modest Beginnings to Soaring Heights Wall Street is both a very specific place – a thoroughfare in lower Manhattan – and a wide-ranging industry that encompasses securities, commercial banking, asset management and insurance activities throughout the U.S. The securities industry, ...